Technically it is 2 TB. But like I said 1 TB is reserved for all of the on demand stuff and another 500 GB is reserved for Prime Time Anytime. This leaves 500 GB for yourself.

The good news is I just connected a 7 port USB hub to the Hopper and was able to mount 2 more drives (2TB and 1TB) with success. They show up in both the DVR menu and Transfer menus. However, when I mount 2 more, all 4 show up in the transfer menu and can move data as expected, but only 2 show up in the DVR menu. Still not too bad and it appears to be an easy way to add lots of storage to the Hopper.

As a side note, I had to format each drive seperately with the others removed from the system. Once all were configured and ready, I added them one at a time and the system recognized them as External Device 1,2,3,4.

The good news is I just connected a 7 port USB hub to the Hopper and was able to mount 2 more drives (2TB and 1TB) with success. They show up in both the DVR menu and Transfer menus. However, when I mount 2 more, all 4 show up in the transfer menu and can move data as expected, but only 2 show up in the DVR menu. Still not too bad and it appears to be an easy way to add lots of storage to the Hopper.

As a side note, I had to format each drive seperately with the others removed from the system. Once all were configured and ready, I added them one at a time and the system recognized them as External Device 1,2,3,4.

This is a great feature.

Nice. Too bad you can't play those recordings on computers and other places without Hopper.

I am getting 2 hopper's and 3 joey's installed on Thursday. With this setup is it best to install the 2 hopper's at secondary TV's since the joey's can access content on either hopper? Seems like I would want my primary displays - HT pj and Great Room tv to have the most flexibility. The problem is this is where my two previous 722's were located and thus where the cabling is already installed.

This problem would be solved when they enable the hoppers to share content but I wonder how long that will be? That is only a slight inconvenience for now as the new setup will be much more flexible.

Well it may have taken DBSTalk some time to get this First Look out for the new DISH Hopper and Joey DVR system, but it's finally here. The delay was not only in receiving the new hardware (DISH wanted to be sure we had correct firmware based on issues that went out with a few boxes), but also we wanted to be sure it was done with the same care that is given to all our First Look articles.

I am getting 2 hopper's and 3 joey's installed on Thursday. With this setup is it best to install the 2 hopper's at secondary TV's since the joey's can access content on either hopper? Seems like I would want my primary displays - HT pj and Great Room tv to have the most flexibility. The problem is this is where my two previous 722's were located and thus where the cabling is already installed.

This problem would be solved when they enable the hoppers to share content but I wonder how long that will be? That is only a slight inconvenience for now as the new setup will be much more flexible.

JD

The biggest thing to think about is if you use PIP. The Hoppers are capable, the Joeys don't have it.

Whole-home DVR is a great idea. Instead of having a full-blown digital video recorder installed with every HDTV in the house, use a single storage device that can hold all the recordings, and use terminal devices to access them on different TVs. The Dish Network Hopper is the best implementation of this idea we've seen yet. It's a three-tuner HD satellite receiver that can support up to three Joeys (4.5 stars), which are smaller devices that can access the Hopper's tuners and DVR storage from other rooms via a coaxial connection. Reasonable pricing, copious features including 2TB of storage space, and a well-designed interface put the Hopper head and shoulders above the TiVo Premiere Elite ($399.99, 2.5 stars), and make it our Editors' Choice for DVRs.

About pricing: The Hopper is available at no cost as part of Dish Network's mid-tier programming packages, and subscribers who want a lower-end programming package can get the Hopper installed for $99. Each installation can include up to three free Joeys for a multi-room setup. Dish charges $10 per month for whole-home DVR with the Hopper, and an additional $7 per month for each Joey connected to a TV.

Design and Interface
Considering it packs three tuners and 2TB of storage space, the Hopper looks downright tiny. At 2.3 by 15.9 by 11.4 inches (HWD), it's barely larger than your average Blu-ray player and half the size of the Dish Network ViP722 (4.5 stars) while offering twice the storage and a much lower price. The front is a glossy black, with a flip-down door on the left side that houses controls including a navigation pad and a very handy Locate Remote button that makes the remote beep so you can find it easily. There's a USB port and the Blockbuster logo, denoting the availability of Blockbuster's video on demand service, on the right side of the front panel. The back of the Hopper holds the cable input, an HDMI output, two additional USB ports for storage, and an eSATA port for external hard drives.

The remote is large, slightly round, and heavy on the buttons. While most navigation can be achieved with the direction pad up top, individual buttons for searching for shows, loading the guide, accessing the DVR, recording shows, and navigating up and down pages can be found on the remote. You'll have to endure a learning curve to remember which of the same-feeling buttons do what.

The menu system is well-designed and clearly labeled. The main menu offers access to Blockbuster Video on Demand, Dish Network video on demand, PrimeTime Anytime (a service that makes three hours of prime time ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC programming available on demand for eight days), and other features like Facebook, CNBC, MSNBC, Pandora, Twitter, the Weather Channel. Since it's primarily a satellite receiver, you'll spend most of your time in the familiar channel guide and DVR menus, but the many options are useful. Unfortunately, those options don't include services like Netflix or Hulu Plus, or even YouTube. Blockbuster's video on demand service, PrimeTime Anytime, and the various apps on the Hopper require a separate network hookup via Ethernet, but Dish's own library and channel guide work through the satellite connection.

Testing and Conclusions
Admittedly, with three tuners and 2TB of storage, you can record about 500 hours of high-definition programming or 1,000 hours of standard definition programming on the 1TB user partition (the other half of the drive is used to store PrimeTime Anytime recordings, video-on-demand content, and Dish Unplugged content), so you probably won't miss Netflix and Hulu Plus that much. After a week of recording, you'd have nearly a month of shows and movies to catch up on. In testing, setting up multiple series recordings was easy, and I set the Hopper to capture every episode of Fringe, Adventure Time, and several other shows in minutes. The dedicated Search and Record buttons made finding my favorite programs a snap, since I didn't have to navigate the hundreds of channels and days of time slots in the channel guide to find what I wanted to record.

I have to note that only two tuners were functional in our test Hopper because of the location of our lab in New York City. A building blocked the dish's line to a third satellite, preventing the tuner from working. The two tuners functioned as described, and this is a problem that will only likely pop up in heavily developed and dense urban areas.

Juggling three tuners (or, in this case, two) can be tricky when you're recording multiple shows. The red button on the remote brings up a list of tuners and the devices using them, so you can quickly switch between active tuners without interrupting DVR recordings. The interface is still a little awkward when you want to see exactly what's using each tuner (especially since, if you have three Joeys, at least one Joey must be tuned to an active tuner used by another device to watch live TV), but the pop-up list is helpful.

The Hopper can work with the Dish Network Sling Adapter to place-shift live TV and DVR recordings to any networked computer or tablet. The adapter is just $30, so it's an affordable add-on to watch your TV anywhere. This technology is different from the connection between the Hopper and Joeys, because it uses an Internet connection instead of the cable hookup to the satellite dish to stream content.

TiVo's DVRs like the Premiere ($299.99, 3.5 stars) and Premiere Elite, offer some advantages the Dish Network Hopper lacks, but also have their share of flaws. The TiVo Premiere and Premiere Elite support Netflix and Hulu Plus, offers up suggestions based on your TV-watching habits, and can be remotely controlled by the TiVo app for Android and iOS. On the other hand, you need to pay for each TiVo box along with a monthly TiVo subscription, and you need an active digital cable account with a CableCARD for each box. Also, with TiVo, multi-room DVR requires a wired network connection or a $90 Wi-Fi dongle for each additional box. All things considered, the Dish Network Hopper offers a much less expensive and much more convenient experience. Dish's own ViP722 doesn't fare much better, because it offers a quarter of the storage of the Hopper or Premiere Elite, and it only supports two rooms (and only standard-definition video for the second room).

Overall, the Hopper is one of the best DVRs we've ever seen. It only has three tuners to the TiVo Elite's four and it doesn't suggest and automatically populate your DVR schedule based on your watching habits, but its price, clean design, and easy support for multi-room DVR make it a must-have for Dish Network subscribers.

can anyone tell me if there is a way to have a joey disconnect from the dvr functions? I am thinking on getting 2 hoppers and enough joeys for 7 tv's....but i have a few kids that will have access to recorded shows that i'd rather they didnt.

that feature is called "Prime Time Anytime" and can be enabled or disabled at your discretion. All you have to do is:
Menu--> Scroll down to "Settings"--> Click the "Prime Time Anytime" logo--> Choose "Enable" or "Disable".

that feature is called "Prime Time Anytime" and can be enabled or disabled at your discretion. All you have to do is:
Menu--> Scroll down to "Settings"--> Click the "Prime Time Anytime" logo--> Choose "Enable" or "Disable".
I am a Dish contractor installer, btw.

I've had the 722 for almost two years and to be blunt, it is a very poorly engineered, outright POS of a product, probably the worst designed and implemented consumer electronics product I've ever used. Unquestionably, I would switch back to DirecTV, even though I haven't had the 5-8x/year billing problems with Dish that I had with DirecTV, if my only option was to continue with the 722, but I'm wondering if the new Dish DVR has cured its predecessor's problems.

Specifically, does the Hopper have the following problems that the 722 has:

1) Poorly implemented FF and RW. With every other DVR I've ever used, fastforwarding through the commercials, one hits the play button as soon as one sees the programming beginning and the DVR will stop, automatically rewind maybe 10 seconds or so, and then start playing at the very start of the programming. With the 722, when you see the start of the programming while fastforwarding (either FF or 30-second skip), you press play and then it starts playing immediately at that point, maybe 15 seconds into the programming. So then each and every time you fastforward through commercials, you have to hit play, then rewind and watch the last commercial in order to see the start of the programming. This problem has bugged me each and every single day that I've used my 722.

2) Cannot record an entire program unless programmed to do so from the start. Say you start watching a movie and realize that you want to record the entire movie. It will not let you record it all, only from the point that you hit the record button, even if you are able to rewind to the beginning.

3) Cannot rewind or record the entire program that was playing llive in the background after stopping watching a recorded program - with my old DirecTV DVR, if I was watching a recorded program off the hard drive, if I finished and then realized that the program playing live was interesting, I could rewind up to 90 minutes or hit the record button and record the entire program. the 722 won't allow this.

4) Cannot control live programming while in Guide or List Recorded Programming mode. Live TV plays in a window in the top right corner of the screen during these two modes, but you cannot control it at all without exiting the Guide or List Recorded. With my DirecTV DVR, if I wanted to pause the program (say a violent story came on the news when my young daughter wandered into the room or I get a phone call), the Pause, Stop, FF, RW buttons still worked even the though the programming was in the small window, but with the 722 in Guide or List mode, you have to cancel out of the mode altogether to control the underlying program.

5) No screen saver (in essence). The 722's screen saver does not kick in until at least 4-5 hours has passed, which is a major problem since I have it connected to a plasma TV and by the time the 722 decides to throw up a screen saver, whatever has been paused has burned an image into my plasma screen.

6) The 722 will decide to shut down if, after several hours with no remote input, you fail to click on the "cancel" button when it throws up the "DVR has been inactive" window.

7) Random failure to record scheduled programming. I would say that between 5% and 10 % of the time, a show I've got the 722 programmed to record won't record, even when I have verified that there was no conflict with a higher priority sheduled recording. This was true on both the original 722 I had that had to be replaced because of sound problems, and on the replacement unit.

8) Pressing the RW or FF Skip buttons (i.e. 30sec. commercial skip) repeatedly will sometimes skip to the very beginning or the very end of the programming, instead of maybe 5 or 6 30-second skips ahead.